Good point. Are you better off using a glass carboy as your primary as opposed to a plastic bucket?

If you are going to use 1 vessel for fermentation, using a carboy will help you not transfer any trub to your bottling bucket/keg because of the curved bottom. You just need to make sure to keep your siphon in the middle of the carboy where it is higher.

If you are going to use 1 vessel for fermentation, using a carboy will help you not transfer any trub to your bottling bucket/keg because of the curved bottom. You just need to make sure to keep your siphon in the middle of the carboy where it is higher.

It doesn't really matter much either way for a stout. Actually, this is the case with most ales. The benefits you gain from a secondary are mostly cosmetic. I wouldn't bother with the secondary unless you are planning to add some additional ingredients after primary fermentation or you are planning to wait a while before you are going to bottle it. I typically use a secondary, but only because I never know when I am going to get around to bottling.

Can a vanilla bean be split and added in the last 5 minutes of the boil or off heat and go into the fermentation tank, so I don't have to rack to a secondary...or should a vanilla bean only be added in secondary? I was told 7-10 days until bottling, but I see a lot of people letting it sit for 3 or 4 weeks in either primary or secondary. What do you think? Thanks!

Ok, so stouts have to Condition for many many months (from what I've read anyways). So bottle after 4 weeks, then condition in the bottle for however long? Thinking about doing a big brew of stouts here in the next month or so for next winter and curious.

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Ok, so stouts have to Condition for many many months (from what I've read anyways). So bottle after 4 weeks, then condition in the bottle for however long? Thinking about doing a big brew of stouts here in the next month or so for next winter and curious.

I've done both bottle conditioning and bulk aging in a carboy for twelve months. The recipes weren't the same so I can't say one was better than the other.

If you bottle condition, use heavy bottles and store them cool, like under 60 degrees to avoid bombs.